Lennox To 'Bare' Self On New Album, Tour
Annie Lennox will release a new album, "Bare," June 10 in the U.S. via J Records (a day earlier internationally through BMG). "The songs are gorgeously lush, elegant, and eloquent," is how Billboard's Melinda Newman described the music after hearing the material last year.
The album was recorded in London and produced by long-time collaborator Steve Lipson (Cher, Pet Shop Boys), who has described "Bare" as a "truly career defining album. Her best yet." Among the songs included are "Pavement Cracks," "The Hurting Time," and "The Saddest Song." A single has not yet been determined, according to a J Records spokesperson.
Lennox will precede the release with about a month of North American tour dates starting at the end of March. A management representative says that the tour will visit only small theaters, "making it a very intimate evening with Annie Lennox." There will be no opening act on the tour.
Currently, only four dates are confirmed. U.S. shows in Miami (March 26), Tampa, Fla. (March 28), and Atlanta (March 30) will go on sale Friday (Feb. 28) via Ticketmaster. A Toronto date (April 4) will go on sale the same day through Ticketmaster Canada. A May date in Zurich is also confirmed; further dates are expected soon.
Fans will be able to keep up with Lennox's travels and information on the new album through a new Web site that is in the midst of being established, according to management.
Lennox last toured in 1999 with Dave Stewart as the Eurythmics. That run came in support of the act's "Peace" (Arista). She has only played a handful of shows as a solo artist, with no full scale tours to support either of her two previous releases, 1995's "Medusa" and 1992's "Diva."
"That was all because of my babies," Lennox said in her Billboard Century Award interview. "We did a few appearances. At one point, I'd been away from my daughter for about a week, and it was disastrous. I felt like part of my body had been cut off and was on the other side of the world -- I couldn't bear it... I just never want to be away from my kids like that. It's not healthy."
Both "Medusa" and "Diva" were released through BMG-associated Arista in the U.S., where Lennox thrived under label head Clive Davis. The move to J Records reunites her with Davis, who established the label after exiting Arista in 2000. Following BMG's November purchase of his 50% stake in the label, he was named chairman of the company's RCA Records Group, which holds the J label under its umbrella.
"Medusa" debuted at No. 11 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 1.8 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. An album of covers, it is best remembered for the ballad "No More 'I Love You's" (originally recorded by U.K. band the Lover Speaks), which reached No. 10 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and No. 23 on the Hot 100.
"Diva" reached No. 23 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 2.6 million copies. That set spawned the hit singles "Walking on Broken Glass" (No. 6 AC, No. 7 Modern Rock, No. 14 Hot 100) and "Why" (No. 6 AC, No. 12 Modern Rock, No. 34 Hot 100).
Here are Annie Lennox's confirmed tour dates:
March 26: Miami (Gusman Cultural Center)
March 28: Tampa, Fla. (Tampa Theatre)
March 30: Atlanta (Woodruff Arts Center)
April 4: Toronto (Toronto Centre for the Arts)
May 23: Zurich (Kongresshaus)
Bye Bye Robbie!
Rob Lowe returns to The West Wing (NBC, 9 p.m. ET/PT) in what's being billed as his farewell performance. Lowe has been much missed, so let's hope it's not too late for all concerned to change their minds.
Hello Saddam
CBS is scheduled to air Dan Rather's interview with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The interview will run in a special edition of 60 Minutes II (9 p.m. ET/PT).
Nicole Kidman News
SEXY COUPLE: Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt in talks to star in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, an action-adventure flick following a bored married couple who discover they are enemy assassins hired to kill each other. Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) will direct.
TWITCHING HER NOSE: Nora Ephron coming aboard to pen and possibly direct the feature version of the 1960s sitcom Bewitched, with Kidman set to star.
MSNBC Axes Phil Donahue's Talk Show
NEW YORK - MSNBC fired Phil Donahue on Tuesday, abruptly ending the veteran talk show host's return to television after six months of poor ratings.
Donahue's final show will be Friday night. The news show that precedes him on the air, "Countdown: Iraq," temporarily will be expanded to two hours to replace him.
"We're proud of the program and we're disappointed that the show was not able to attract the viewership we had hoped for and expected," said Erik Sorenson, MSNBC president. "We thank Phil and his staff for their dedication, commitment and passion."
Donahue's office referred calls to his agent on Thursday, and he did not immediately return a call for comment.
The move was not a surprise. MSNBC hoped "Donahue" would provide a liberal counterweight to Fox News Channel's competing "The O'Reilly Factor," but the ratings started poorly and didn't improve.
MSNBC tried to tweak the show in November, putting Donahue in front of a live audience in New York instead of in a New Jersey studio, but it made little difference.
The political talk show format has yet to prove — and may never — that it can support a liberal voice, said Andrew Tyndall, head of ADT Research, a television news consulting firm.
Donahue's chances weren't helped by MSNBC's impatience, he said.
"They're very quick to cancel shows," Tyndall said. "Right from the start, they haven't settled on a format and let it grow so people can find it. If it's not working in a few months, they cancel it and move on to something else."
MSNBC also has sought a younger audience than its cable news rivals and the hiring of Donahue, 67, went against that strategy. "Anyone who's under 25 doesn't remember when his old talk show was on the air," Tyndall said.
During this month, a "sweeps" month in which ratings are watched closely to set advertising rates, "Donahue" averaged 446,000 viewers. O'Reilly drew 2.7 million viewers, up 28 percent from February 2002, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Connie Chung's CNN show that debuted shortly before "Donahue" averaged 985,000 viewers this month, Nielsen said.
"Countdown: Iraq," with Lester Holt as host, is one of the network's few success stories, occasionally inching past CNN to second in the cable news ratings.
Donahue was a nine-time Daytime Emmy winner for his syndicated talk show, which began in 1967 and aired nationally from 1970 to 1996, paving the way for dozens of such shows to follow.
He began his MSNBC show July 15 with a panel discussion on whether the United States should try to oust Saddam Hussein. On Monday night, with Rosie O'Donnell as guest, they talked about the same topic.
The show's failure is "a footnote" to Donahue's career, Tyndall said. "His legacy is unharmed," he said. "He invented an entire genre of television."
Not Surprisingly, Actor Robert Blake Proclaims Innocence
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Robert Blake says he did not kill his wife and believes that God will make sure he is cleared, but he also says he does not worry about his upcoming trial because he is already "a dead man."
Blake, who on Wednesday faces a preliminary hearing that will determine if he must stand trial on murder charges, proclaimed his innocence during an interview on ABC's "20/20" program that is scheduled for broadcast on Wednesday night.
"Of course I'm innocent," Blake told television personality Barbara Walters during the interview, which was conducted last week at the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles.
"No, I'm not going to be found guilty," the "Baretta" star responded when asked if he would be convicted. "Why? It's real simple. Because God has never, ever deserted me. Can't say I haven't deserted Him from time to time."
Bonny Lee Bakley was found shot to death on May 4, 2001 while sitting in Blake's car not far from a restaurant where the couple had dinner. Blake had gone back into the restaurant to retrieve a gun that he left there.
But Blake, who would face a life prison term if he is found guilty, says he is not concerned about that possibility.
"What do I care?" Blake said. "How do you kill a dead man? What are they gonna do to me that they haven't done already? They took away my entire past. They took away my entire future. What's left ... to take? They gonna take my testicles and make earrings out of them?"
WANTS TO CLEAR NAME FOR DAUGHTER'S SAKE
The 69-year-old actor, best known for playing detective Tony Baretta on the 1970s television drama, also offered his theory about who killed his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, on May 4, 2001.
Blake said Bakley, who has been portrayed by defense attorneys as a grifter who bilked men with "lonely hearts" letters, was probably slain by one of her victims.
"In my heart I believe that some man maybe 10, 15, maybe 20 years ago -- because she used to get married to them ... I think she destroyed a lot of lives," he said. "And I think one life she destroyed saw her on television ... Because we got engaged and it was in all the newspapers."
Blake added that he used to see strange people "hanging around" his house and that one of them followed him and Bakley when they went to dinner on the night of the murder.
Blake also said during the interview that he wants to clear his name for the sake of his young daughter, Rosie, and says he does not expect to last long if kept behind bars.
"I'm not going to last another year," he said. "I'm 70 years old. Things happen to old people. They get aneurysms, they get strokes, they get heart attacks."
Blake, a former child actor who starred in the "Our Gang" comedies, has also appeared in dozens of movies, including 1967's "In Cold Blood," based on the Truman Capote book of the same name, in which he portrayed one of two men who murdered a Kansas family and were hanged for their crime.